Practical Facilities Tips, News & Advice.
Heating, ventilation, air conditioning, and refrigeration (HVACR) industry group ASHRAE has joined organizations, government agencies, and companies worldwide to support World Refrigeration Day. Celebrated on June 26th each year, the annual event is dedicated to raising awareness about the significant role of refrigeration and air conditioning to modern life. This year’s theme, “Next Generation Cooling,” highlights […]
Rutgers University has selected DSD Renewables to install 16 solar carport canopies, totaling 14.5 MW, in parking lots across the New Jersey university’s multiple campuses. This is the first major sustainability initiative to roll out since University President Jonathan Holloway announced Rutgers’ commitment to a Climate Action Plan in September 2021. The project, expected to […]
On this latest episode of FMA Shorts, David Trask, national director of ARC Facilities, warns about creating “single points of failure” in a facilities management team. This clip was taken from a recent webinar titled “Capturing Building Knowledge with Mobile Tech.” The full webinar is available for FREE on-demand here.
The U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) announced plans to use $975 million in Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) funding to upgrade federal buildings across the country with emerging and sustainable technologies. These plans are in line with President Joe Biden’s Executive Order 14057, which launched the Federal Sustainability Plan and charged the federal government to “lead by […]
While many people think keeping facilities safe is solely dependent on security access control measures like biometrics, keycards, and other electronic locks, nothing could be further from the truth. Lesley Groff, Senior Supervisor of Buildings and Grounds at UGI Utilities Inc., recently spoke during the Facilities Management Advisor webinar “The Facility Manager’s Role in Maintaining […]
As power generation shifts to clean energy, using electricity more efficiently will be critical for reducing costs, averting blackouts, and cutting pollution, according to a new report from the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE). The group evaluated five U.S. grid regions (California, Texas, the Pacific Northwest, the Southeast, and the Midwest) and found that […]
As the Atlantic hurricane season looms, businesses must take proactive measures to protect their facilities from the potentially devastating impact of severe storms. With experts from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration predicting a range of 12 to 17 named storms in 2023—with five to nine of them being hurricanes, including one to four Category […]
Organizations wanting to go green typically install rooftop or ground-mounted solar projects or buy renewable energy credits. But a water utility in New Jersey has embraced a novel approach, installing North America’s largest floating solar project. Consisting of 16,510 solar panels, the 8.9-megawatt (MW) solar array covers 17 acres of the Canoe Brook reservoir in […]
Virtually every business has a carbon footprint, and with that the responsibility to understand its effect on the environment and all the entities with which it interacts. While climate action is often associated with the largest corporations, the fact is that small to midsize businesses (SMBs) make up almost 90% of global enterprises. Their individual […]
The U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) and the White House Council on Environmental Quality announced a new memorandum of understanding (MOU) with major utility Xcel Energy. Under the MOU, the parties will work toward powering federal facilities in Minnesota, Michigan, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Wisconsin with 100% carbon-pollution-free electricity (CFE) by 2030. The deal is in […]